From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Forrest reporting. The Obama administration sends the Iran agreement to Congress.

A congressional 60-day review period begins Monday, for the agreement with some Republicans vowing to reject the accord.

Mr. Obama promises to veto any congressional attempt to kill the initiative.

In a series of high-profile television appearances on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the agreement probably won’t restart diplomatic relations with Tehran.

“We’re prepared to test whether or not they’re prepared to change their relationship in the region, and we certainly, I think it would be diplomatic malpractice if we didn’t keep our doors open to possibilities.” John Kerry appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has again rejected proposals to write off part of Greece’s debt. She says her government will show flexibility in new talks with Greece.

Speaking Sunday on German television, the chancellor also ruled out forcing Greece to leave the 19-nation eurozone.

At least 43 people were killed and 100 wounded near the Yemeni city of Aden on Sunday. Officials say the town was shelled by Houthi rebels.

The militia has been fighting for control of Aden in recent months.

A Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign in the country four months ago in support of exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The threat posed by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram is expected to top the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama holds talks with the Nigerian leader at the White House on Monday. The U.S. is seeking to expand assistance to Nigeria in fighting the militants.

This is VOA news.

Ukraine’s military and pro-Russian rebels are accusing each other of shelling residential districts in and near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

Police on Sunday reported at least four civilians killed in the past 24 hours.

The gunman in the recent shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sent a text message just hours before the attack in which he declared war.

The message to a friend hints at Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez’s motive for Thursday’s killing of five American servicemen at a military support center.

The text included a link to an Islamic verse that says “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, then I have declared war against him.”

Investigators have asked foreign intelligence services to help trace movements and activities abroad by Abdulazeez, including a trip he took to Jordan in 2014.

U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump refused Sunday to back off his attack on the war record of Senator John McCain. McCain was tortured during his five years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi in the 1960s.

Trump has drawn wide rebukes from his Republican opponents, as well as Democrats John Kerry and Hillary Clinton

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry also running for president appeared today on the NBC program Meet the Press.

From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Forrest in Washington. The United States and Cuba restore full diplomatic relations.

Before dawn, the Cuban flag was hoisted at the U.S. State Department alongside the flags of the other countries that have diplomatic relations with the U.S.

The U.S. and Cuba each now have a full-fledged embassy in each other’s country.

Just hours after the ceremony, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Cuba’s new ambassador.

“The foreign minister and I touched on a wide range of issues of mutual concern, including cooperation on law enforcement, counternarcotics, telecommunications, the Internet, environmental issues, human rights, including trafficking in persons. And of course, we also discussed the opening of our embassies.”

An opening ceremony for the U.S. embassy in Cuba will be delayed until Kerry can travel to Havana.

President Barack Obama is offering U.S. support to Nigeria’s visiting leader, Muhammadu Buhari, in the fight against the Boko Haram militant group. Aru Pande has more.

Just eight weeks after taking office, Nigerian President Buhari sat beside President Obama in the Oval Office and listened as the American leader praised the “historic” vote marking the first democratic transfer of power since the end of military rule in Nigeria in 1999.

“We saw an election in which a peaceful transition to a new government took place.”

During Monday’s visit to the White House, President Buhari thanked President Obama for U.S. support in making the hope of a peaceful transition a reality.

Aru Pande, the White House.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. That on the eve of a presidential election.

This is VOA news.

The U.N. Security Council approved the Iran nuclear accord Monday. That action clears the path for the lifting of economic sanctions against that country.

Representatives of all 15 member countries on the Council voted in favor of last week’s agreement.

U.S. defense chief Ash Carter said Monday Israel is, in his words, “the bedrock of American strategy” in the Mideast. The remarks opened a trip to the region aimed at strengthening U.S. links with allies wary of the Iranian nuclear accord.

“The purpose of my trip is to work on all the things that we do together: to guarantee the security of American interests in the region and very importantly one of those is the security of Israel.” :Ash Carter.

Greece reopened its banks Monday for the first time in three weeks.

Depositors swarmed into banks to tap their accounts.

The nation also increased taxes and made important loan payments to two of its international lenders.

A military exercise involving Ukrainian and U.S. forces, along with troops from more than a dozen other countries, opened Monday in western Ukraine. The exercises come as fighting between government troops and Russia-backed rebels escalated in eastern Ukraine

Eastern European, I should say, European Union interior ministers failed on Monday to find temporary housing for some 40,000 African, Asian and Middle Eastern asylum seekers.

Those refugees are encamped in Greece and Italy after making journeys across the Mediterranean.

A suicide bombing in the Turkish city of Suruç has killed at least 28 people and left nearly 100 wounded.

No one has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack although Turkish officials say they have strong reasons to suspect Islamic State militants.

From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Forrest reporting. A new tool to battle Boko Haram.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says a regional joint task force will be set up to fight the militant group.

“The ministers of defense met and have agreed that each country will contribute as a composition of the multi-regional task force and they are to be in place by the end of this month.”

Mr. Buhari says Nigeria will lead the new task force and that troops from several Nigerian neighboring states could be deployed against the militants.

Mr. Buhari is in the middle of a four-day visit to Washington.

Burundians voted in a presidential election Tuesday highlighted by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid to win a third term and an opposition boycott.

Critics said Mr. Nkurunziza should not be allowed to serve a third term.

VOA’s Central Africa service reported the capital, Bujumbura, was calm during voting hours Tuesday and that the turnout was very low.

Pre-election gunfire and explosions left at least two people dead in the capital.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met Tuesday in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The talks come a week after the finalization of an Iran nuclear agreement that Mr. Netanyahu opposes.

U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Tuesday that Iran release three Americans it is holding and help find a fourth believed to be in the country.

Mr. Obama told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Pittsburgh that the U.S. will not relent until Americans unjustly detained in Iran are allowed to come home.

For more on that, check our website voanews.com. This is VOA news.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says implementing the international nuclear agreement with Iran will make the world safer, improve the standard of living for Iranians and potentially open up opportunities between the United States and Iran.

“I hope that we will succeed in persuading people why this agreement actually prevents conflict, provides for security for the region and will prevent the acquisition of a nuclear weapon.”

John Kasich is in his second term as Ohio’s governor and previously served 18 years as a congressman, including as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Kasich told a crowd at Ohio State University that he has a proven record.

“… and here is how we’ve done it: by staying together, not by dividing each other, but by staying together with our eyes on the horizon”

Kasich has a reputation as an effective budget cutter. But he also has an independent streak and at times has defied his party’s conservative wing.

Jim Malone, Washington.

Pope Francis on Tuesday called on world leaders to take “a very strong stand” on climate change at a United Nations summit later this year in Paris.

The pope spoke at a Vatican conference attended by dozens of mayors and governors from around the world, who signed a joint declaration demanding action on human-induced global warming.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was in attendance.

“We are committed to an 80 percent reduction (of) greenhouse gases by 2050, mirroring the pledge of so many of you represent here today and we’re proud to be the largest city in the world to make that commitment.”

The declaration states the Paris summit in December may be the last effective opportunity for world leaders to negotiate meaningful environmental policy.

The Turkish government has announced it will step up border security following Monday’s suicide bombing in the town of Suruç, on the border with Syria. Dorian Jones reports.

In a statement, the prime minister’s office announced it had identified a suspect in the bombing and is looking into his national and international links. The attack killed 32 people, mainly youths, who were preparing to take part in relief efforts in the nearby Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

The government has described the attack as the first on Turkish soil by the Islamic State group and pledged to tighten the border with Syria.

“War can only destroy, while the dialogue can help us overcome all these troubles of ours.”

Official vote results are expected Thursday. The elections have been roundly criticized after the government ignored an opposition boycott and calls from the international community for a postponement due to election-related unrest.

U.S. President Barack Obama celebrates the growth in American economic links with sub-Saharan Africa at a White House reception Wednesday evening.

The U.S. president is preparing for a visit to Kenya and Ethiopia in coming days.

A human rights group is accusing South Sudanese government forces and allied fighters with civilian killings, rapes and the destruction of property.

Human Rights Watch says the alleged abuses occurred during a military operation in Unity State.

United Nations aid agencies report the fighting in Yemen continues to take a heavy toll on civilians. Lisa Schlein reports.

Civilian casualties in Yemen are growing as airstrikes and ground fighting continue. The United Nations reports more than 3,600 people have been killed, nearly half civilians, since Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against Houthi rebels began March 26. It says another 17,300 people have been wounded, including 4,000 civilians.

U.N. aid agencies report the war has devastated the country’s economy and left 21 million of the nation’s 25 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Lisa Schlein, Geneva.

Greece’s banks received a new cash injection from the European Central Bank on Wednesday. The bank official neither confirmed nor denied that the ECB has decided to increase assistance to Greek banks by about $980 million, the second such cash injection in just under a week.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers began another debate on a second package of reforms demanded by the ECB and the International Monetary Fund.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that the administration is in the “final stages” of drafting a plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

President Barack Obama made the closure of the prison a priority when he took office in 2009, but the plan faced numerous setbacks.

From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Forrest reporting. A high-level visit to Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made an unannounced visit to Iraq, saying he wanted a first-hand look at U.S. and Iraqi efforts to thwart the advances of Islamic State militants.

At the first stop of a day-long visit, the American defense chief observed and praised Iraqi counterterrorism troops.

Top Obama administration officials face tough questioning in the first Senate hearing on the Iran nuclear agreement. Congress has to accept or reject the accord by mid-September.

Secretary of State John Kerry urged members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to accept the agreement which he says will prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb.

“It will ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains under intense scrutiny forever, and we will know what they are doing.” :John Kerry.

U.S. President Barack Obama leaves Thursday on a trip to Ethiopia and Kenya. On the trip, Mr. Obama will promote the growth in American economic links with sub-Saharan Africa.

Kenya’s foreign secretary says the coming visit is a strong endorsement for his country. Gabe Joselow has more.

In an interview with VOA’s Vincent Makori in Nairobi Thursday, Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said President Obama’s visit with the government shines a positive light on Kenya and the administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“I think his coming now is his recognition of the kind of leadership that we have.”

Kenya’s relations with the United States have been strained at times, especially when President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were facing charges at the International Criminal Court for their alleged roles in violence that followed the 2007 presidential election. But now, the tensions appear to be in the past.

Gabe Joselow, Nairobi.

This is VOA news.

FBI Director James Comey says the Islamic State group’s online attempts to recruit Americans pose a bigger terrorist threat to the U.S. than al-Qaeda.

Speaking late Wednesday at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Comey warned of the extremist group’s intensifying social media campaign.

“If you can imagine a nationwide haystack, we’re trying to find needles in that haystack. And a lot of those needles are invisible to us either because of the way in which they’re communicating or because they haven’t communicated or touched a place where we can see them.”

Comey said Islamic State-linked Twitter accounts have about 21,000 English-language followers, hundreds or thousands of which are in the U.S.

Amnesty International warns in a new report that Burundi is on the verge of conflict after police used heavy-handed tactics to suppress months of anti-government demonstrations. Mohammed Yusuf has more.

The report, Braving Bullets, says authorities repressed demonstrations as if they were an insurrection, punishing protesters for expressing their political views.

The U.N. monitors have documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of protesters in detention, as well as dozens of killings of demonstrators and human rights defenders by members of the Imbonerakure militia group and security forces.

Mohammed Yusuf, Bujumbura.

The European Union has opened an antitrust case against six major U.S. film studios and Sky UK of Britain charging that they unfairly restrict access to their content to European Union customers.

The EU’s commission’s statement of objections has named Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers.

The statement says Sky UK’s licensing agreement with those companies require to allow viewers access to their films only in Britain and Ireland and not in the rest of the European Union.

A Russian Soyuz capsule has landed at the International Space Station after a two-month delay. The delay was caused by the earlier failure of an unmanned Russian cargo ship.

Officials said the capsule reached the orbiting laboratory Thursday less than six hours after its launch from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.

U.S. and Turkish media report that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to let U.S. fighter planes use an air base in Turkey. The base will be used by the U.S. to launch attacks on Islamic State militants inside Syria.

The U.S. government has not publicly discussed details of the new cooperation between the two countries.

From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Byrd reporting. U.S. President Barack Obama is in Kenya amid extremely tight security for the start of a two-day visit.

Mr. Obama touched down in Nairobi Friday evening and was greeted on the tarmac by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other dignitaries. The president later had dinner with his step-grandmother, his sister and other Obama family relatives.

This is Mr. Obama’s first trip to Kenya as president. He visited the country before when he was a U.S. senator.

Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto says that the U.S. president visiting means a lot to his country.

“President Obama is not just any other American president. He has African roots, and more specifically Kenyan roots, and so it is significant in a very different way.”

Mr. Obama will address the Global Entrepreneurship Summit on Saturday. He will give a speech at a stadium and then he will travel to Ethiopia.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says if the U.S. Congress disapproves a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, it would give Tehran a green light to develop a nuclear bomb.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Mr. Kerry said congressional rejection of the deal would undermine President Obama’s ability to act worldwide.

“I mean it’s a repudiation of President Obama’s initiative and a statement that when the executive department negotiates, it doesn’t mean anything anymore because we have 535 Secretaries of State.”

Congress has 55 more days to accept or reject the deal. President Obama has threatened to veto any legislation that does not endorse the pact.

This is VOA news.

Turkish jets struck Islamic State targets in Syria Friday. The attack followed a deadly clash between the jihadists and Turkish soldiers on the Syria’s border.

As Dorian Jones reports, security forces also carried out raids on Islamic State and Kurdish militants in Turkey’s largest city.

In Istanbul and several other cities, police carried out over 100 dawn raids. More than 200 people have been detained in the sweep. The operations were aimed at both the Islamic State militant group and the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. At least one person has been reported killed.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the raids were part of a widening operation.

The raids followed Monday’s deadly bombing by a suspected IS suicide bomber that killed 32 people. Many of whom were Kurds. In retaliation, Kurdish militants killed two police officers. They are accused of collaborating with the jihadists.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the PKK that Turkey was in a new era and that the PKK had to immediately lay down its arms, or face fatal consequences.

Dorian Jones of VOA news, Istanbul.

The U.S. military says it killed a top al-Qaeda commander in an airstrike earlier this month in southeastern Afghanistan.

The Pentagon confirmed that Abu Khalil al-Sudani, a high-ranking al-Qaeda operational commander, was killed by an airstrike in the Bermal district of Paktika province on July 11.

Colonel Pat Ryder is spokesman for the U.S. Central Command: “The death of al-Sudani denies al-Qaeda a well-connected, proven operational planner and leader. And, certainly, this will at least temporarily disrupt their ability to conduct attacks.”

The Pentagon described al-Sudani as the head of the Sunni militant group’s suicide and explosive operations, adding that he was directly linked to plotting attacks on U.S., Afghan and Pakistani forces.

European regulators have given a green light to a prospective new malaria vaccine, setting it on the path to possible licensing and assessment by the World Health Organization.

The European Medicines Agency said Friday that the drug known as “Mosquirix,” or “RTS,S” should be licensed for babies and very young children, despite mixed results in testing.

Gregory Hartl is a spokesman for the WHO: “We need to look at its affordability and its cost effectiveness. We will also need to look at the public health value of the vaccine in relation to other malaria-controlled measures.”

Nearly 200 million people are infected with malaria every year. More than 600,000 people, most of them children, die annually from the disease.

And a gunman who killed two people and wounded nine others in a Louisiana movie theater before killing himself Thursday evening had a long history of mental illness.

From Washington, this is VOA news. I’m David Byrd reporting. President Barack Obama says the United States and Kenya stand united against the threat of terrorism.

Speaking in Nairobi Saturday at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr. Obama said the two countries have effectively worked together in combating al-Shabaab.

“Kenya is working with Ethiopia and with the United States and others to further degrade al-Shabaab’s space of operations inside Somalia.”

Kenyan President Kenyatta said his country and the United States need to work much closer together to help stabilize Somalia and to help its government reduce the area controlled by al-Shabaab.

When asked about gay rights in Kenya, Mr. Obama said he believes that governments should treat people equally regardless of their sexual orientation.

Mr. Kenyatta said that Kenyans have other things on their minds.

“For Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue. We want to focus on other areas that are day-to-day living for our people.”

Mr. Obama speaks at a rally in Nairobi on Sunday. He will then travel to Ethiopia for meetings with that country’s president and prime minister.

Authorities in Cameroon say a suicide bombing in the northern town of Maroua killed at least 10 people Saturday three days after two bombings in the same town killed 20 others.

State television said a female bomber detonated explosives at a popular nightspot, triggering alarms across the city as rescue and military personnel launched a hunt for survivors.

Two suicide bombings on Wednesday targeted a large market and a residential area in the same town.

This is VOA news.

The armed wing of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party says it considers the three-year-long cease-fire agreement with Ankara to be over.

The PKK’s military command blamed the end of the cease-fire on Ankara and accused the Turkish state and army of having “unilaterally terminated” the agreement with its Friday bombing raids on the separatist group’s training camps and bases straddling the border with Iraq.

Turkey launched a second day of airstrikes Saturday on Islamic State militant targets in Syria and dropped bombs for the first time on Kurdish militants in Iraq.

Tunisia’s parliament overwhelmingly voted to pass the country’s new anti-terror law Saturday after a pair of devastating attacks against tourists. However, critics fear that the new legislation might endanger the North African nation’s hard-won freedoms.

Last month, a gunman killed 38 tourists, most of them from Britain, in the Tunisian seaside city of Sousse. In March, two gunmen killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman at Tunis’ Bardo Museum.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Human Rights Watch has criticized the new Tunisian bill, saying it “would open the way to prosecuting political dissent as terrorism.” It says it gives too much power to judges and curtails lawyers’ abilities to provide an effective defense.

The Saudi-led coalition said it will begin a five-day humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen.

The pause in military operations came at the request of exiled President [Abdu Rasour] Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, that is, a statement by the Saudi state media said Saturday.

Hadi, who fled to Riyadh earlier this year, sent a letter to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Friday, asking for the pause to allow delivery and distribution of what he called “the maximum amount of humanitarian and medical aid” to the war-torn country.

Nearly 800 migrants rescued from boats while trying to cross the Mediterranean have been taken to port in Palermo, Sicily.

Most of the migrants, mainly from Sudan, Eritrea and Syria, were taken to port Saturday aboard a Norwegian vessel.

Another group was taken to the southeastern Sicilian town of Pozzallo aboard an Irish navy patrol ship.

Lieutenant Commander Daniel Wall is that ship’s captain: “We rescued 30 women, 14 children and the rest were males. We then proceeded to a position near Lampedusa where we took on board over hundred migrants from the Italian coast guard.”